Externally heated engines and, in particular, Stirling cycle engines have always held great promise, because their theoretical thermal efficiency approaches that of the Carnot Cycle. This efficiency is established in turn by the difference between the hot and cold temperatures of the cycle. Recent designers of such engines have sought to maximize efficiency by increasing the temperature of the hot side of the engine. In addition, they have utilized fine molecule gasses, such as helium and hydrogen, at very high pressures, to further optimize the power output of the engine. Their combined efforts have led to commercial failure. The high temperatures have required the use of materials which can withstand these temperatures. The practical problems, and enormous expense, of using materials such as titanium and special alloys of stainless steels have combined to make the engines impractical to manufacture, and expensive to own and operate. High pressure gasses and extreme temperatures have made the engine so complex that it has been placed out of the reach of all but the most sophisticated users.
The present invention takes a completely opposite approach. Through the combined use of several innovations, the design of a high efficiency, low temperature, simple engine becomes possible. Existing designs have used either plain cylinder walls as the heat exchanger, or a variation of the shell and tube type of air to air heat exchanger. Materials are typically steel or titanium, both of which are relatively poor conductors of heat.
To overcome these inefficiencies, the temperature differential between the air outside the cylinder, and the working fluid inside the cylinder must be very large to force the transfer of the necessary amount of heat in the very limited time available. This in turn forces the heat source itself to operate at an even higher temperature, and to be very tightly coupled to the heat exchanger. This tends to expose the external portions of the exchanger to even higher temperatures, which requires still more exotic materials.
Some prior art engines use liquid sodium as a phase change material, to get heat inside the cylinder more effectively. Aside from the great expense involved, there is complex technology needed to manufacture such devices. In addition, liquid sodium is very toxic and very hot, making it extremely dangerous to use. This technology is not suitable for use in a simple, mass-produced device.
An additional problem in the prior art engines concerns the temperature of the air sent to the regenerator. The extreme temperatures traditionally involved in the prior art make the use of common low temperature tubing, such as copper, impossible. This also applies to the materials used in the regenerator. Neither the outside of the regenerator or the material used in the regenerator matrix can be optimized for thermal performance, because the overriding concern is survivability at high temperature.
The problems of high temperatures completely dominate the design of a regenerator to be used in the prior art Stirling engines. This leads to significant thermodynamic losses, as well as greater expense, and reduced lifespan. The outside shell of the regenerator has to be made of high strength metals that will tolerate the high temperatures. This leads to high losses of heat to the environment, heat gained from the environment, and heat conducted from one end of the regenerator to the other. This heat conduction forces operation of the regenerator in a manner that is far from ideal.
The heat exchanger on the cold cylinder must efficiently remove heat from the working fluid, during the compression stroke. As with the hot side, prior art heat exchanger designs have used either the basic cylinder shape itself as the heat sink, or they have used simple finned surfaces or some variation of the shell and tube heat exchanger. In all such designs, the thermal resistance inherent in these approaches forces the heat sink to operate with a large difference in temperature (ΔT) between the interior and exterior of the cylinder.
In other words, the working fluid inside the cold cylinder is forced to be at a temperature considerably above the outside temperature at which the heat is finally dissipated. This greatly reduces the ΔT across the engine, which limits the maximum efficiency and power output of the engine.
Since the Stirling Cycle is a closed thermodynamic cycle, the working fluid must be sealed inside the engine. This leads to several major design problems.
First, the prior art engines are forced to operate at high temperatures and pressures. This places great demands on the seals. To survive the high temperatures and pressures, the only practical approach has been to use sealing rings on the piston, as in conventional internal combustion engines. The piston and ring assemblies suffer leakage, or blow-by. This fluid loss from the engine is a critical problem, as it must continually be replaced to avoid loss of power output, and it disturbs the cycle. This usually means that the crankcase itself must be sealed as well, leading to problems of lost work in the crankcase, as the pistons do unwanted work on the crankcase gas. It also means that the crankcase must be filled with the same working fluid as used in the engine itself.
The piston rings scraping up and down on the walls of the cylinder leads to further problems. The biggest of these is the friction created. In a typical engine this can consume some 20% of the engine's output, a very serious loss.
A further problem is that of lubrication. Liquid oils cannot be simply sprayed onto the cylinder walls, as this would leak into the working area of the engine and contaminate the working fluid. This would lead to problems involving unwanted contamination, corrosion, and loss of efficiency. But without adequate lubrication, the friction losses become even greater.
The present invention solves all these problems found in the prior art designs.